“In the undergrowth, where the giant trees are wanting, we find the anoma flourish best, their clusters of crimson fruit, growing at the base of the stalk, serving me for a tartish dessert, and their grains, commonly called “grains of paradise,” being sought after by the bhang smokers of my Expedition to sweeten their breath and increase saliva. The leaves are always of a fresh green, and give one a true idea of a tropical forest and moist, warm climate. Not far off from these is the _Phrynium ramosissimum_, whose broad and long fronds serve to thatch the natives’ huts and fishers’ sheds, or to fold their cassava bread, or for platters and salt-baskets, or for storing the minnows or whitebait for market. You may also see here the _Strelitza vagina_, or the wild banana, or the violet-tree, and the oil-berry tree, the black ivory nut-tree, which might be made a valuable article of commerce; the _Semicarbus anacardium_, commonly called the marking-ink plant, the _Encephastos Aldensteini_, the ginger plant, the dragon’s blood tree, various species of the Verbenaceæ, such as the _Vitex umbrosa_, the physic nut-tree (_Jatrophe purgans_), which is frequently associated with Muzimus, especially by Wakerewé and Wajiji, and the brilliant bloom of a Loranthus or species of Liliaceæ in flower, will not fail to be noted as one dreamily glides by these unknown islets, full of treasures to bewitch a botanist, and wherein the enterprising merchant might find profit. “Some other pleasures we have are in watching a sunny bank, where we may rest assured the crocodile lies dreaming of fish banquets, and whence he will rise and plunge with a startling splash; or in watching the tricks of some suspicious and watchful behemoth, whose roar has its volume redoubled as it is reverberated from shore to shore in these eerie wilds. Our terrors are numerous. First, the rocks and rapids, the plunging cataract and whirling pool, which fortunately are passed, and which we pray we shall not have to encounter again. Then the sudden storm, which now blows each day up river, and, first wrinkling the face of the river, soon raises heavy brown waves, like those of a lake, which, having already suffered from, we are careful to avoid; but the greatest danger, an ever-recurring one, is that which we have to encounter each time the wild howling cannibal aborigines observe us. Indeed, the sense of security is short-lived, our pleasure evanescent; but the sense of danger is always present, and pervades our minds whether in our sleeping or our waking hours.